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Residents, environmentalists condemn plan to remove Roxbury trees as ‘environmental racism’ - Boston.com

Environmentalists and residents are condemning a city plan to remove 124 trees along Melnea Cass Boulevard in Roxbury for a roadway improvement project — an act some say is environmental racism.

The redesign is expected to begin this year and will bring in a “more pedestrian-friendly” boulevard with bike lanes added to both sides, additional flood protections, and slower traffic, The Boston Globe reports.

The plan comes after officials scaled back on an initial proposal that would have added additional traffic lanes to the four already there. The current vision allows the city to keep $25 million allotted in federal roadway construction grants.

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But the project still calls for removing mature trees, which has caused local uproar.

“This is an assault on the environment — and our community,” Cristle Rawlins, a 59-year-old artist who has lived in Roxbury for three decades, told the Globe. “You have to wonder whether this would be as easy to do in a neighborhood that wasn’t predominantly people of color. I do think there’s environmental racism here.”

People of color make up over 90 percent of Roxbury’s residents, the Globe reports.

Attorneys with the Conservation Law Foundation meanwhile say the city violated state law, which mandates tree wardens hold a public hearing before removing “public shade trees,” according to the newspaper.

In a letter to officials earlier this month, the attorneys wrote the city has not considered the full impact of removing the mature trees.

“Roxbury is an environmental justice community that is already facing disparate impacts from extreme heat,” they wrote. “Urban [tree] canopy is a critical tool for communities in combating the effects of extreme heat. The residents of Roxbury should, at the very least, have an opportunity to voice their concerns.”

Officials declined to respond to the allegations to the Globe but have said before that roadway projects are exempt from the law. The CLF disputed the claim, and over 3,700 people had signed an online petition calling for a public hearing as of Monday afternoon.

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Yvonne Lalyre, 70, a retired teacher, has fought the project for years, according to the Globe. For weeks, she tied ribbons to the trees in hopes of convincing the city to spare them.

“We live in times when we have to keep all the trees we have,” Lalyre said. “The trees are essential to us. It’s criminal to cut them down.”

Audrey Coulter, a spokeswoman for Mayor Marty Walsh, told the newspaper removing the trees is necessary for the city to be able to meet the priorities of making the boulevard more pedestrian friendly.

“The trees that are still slated to be removed are due to adjustments in the design of the road, principally to reduce crashes and flooding, and to improve the infrastructure for walking and biking,” Coulter said.

The city plans to remove 124 trees, of which 25 are considered dead, according to the Globe. The city plans to plant 205 trees to account for those taken out along the road and has already or intends to plant another 140 in the area.

Young trees take time to mature into those that provide environmental benefits — and shade — to the community though.

“This is an awful, awful plan,” City Councilor Michelle Wu, chairwoman of the council’s Planning, Development, and Transportation Committee, told the Globe.

Last week, Wu released a “Green New Deal and Just Recovery” plan for the city, in which she highlighted that communities of color are slated to be disproportionately impacted by problems brought on by climate change.

Mature trees better absorb storm-water runoff and reduce flooding than saplings, Wu said.

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“No amount of federal funding is worth exacerbating deep, structural injustices,” she said. “It’s short-sighted, foolish, and an egregious injustice to tell these communities that they have to wait decades for new trees to replace the existing canopy.”

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